Our Festival 2025 podcast series returns with one of our Feature Events: Beyond the Lines. Featuring powerhouse performer Ziggy Ramo, writer and singer Nardi Simpson, poetic provocateur David Stavanger, acclaimed Indian poet Akhil Katyal as well as Laurie May, Bebe Oliver, Kirli Saunders and Sarah Temporal. Plus winners from the Poets Out Loud Slam and Australian Poetry Slam heat. Presented with Red Room Poetry as part of Poetry Month 2025 This session was supported by Kassa-Miller Giving.
#BWF2024Podcast Our ABC? Head back to the 2024 Byron Writers Festival with Kim Williams in conversation with Kerry O’Brien. In January 2024, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced media executive Kim Williams as the next chair of the ABC. Join Kim in conversation with Kerry O’Brien to reflect on his new role at the beloved national broadcaster and to share his vision for its future, as well as his thoughts on the current state of Australian media and the arts.
#BWF2024Podcast Prima Facie. Head back to the 2024 Byron Writers Festival with Suzie Miller in conversation with Steph Harmon. Drawn from the internationally acclaimed play, Prima Facie is a propulsive, raw look at the price victims pay for speaking out and the system that sets them up to fail. Join author and playwright Suzie Miller in conversation with Guardian culture editor Steph Harmon.
#BWF2024Podcast My Story. Head back to the 2024 Byron Writers Festival with Nicky Winmar in conversation with Gideon Haigh. Thirty years after creating one of the most memorable moments in sporting history, Indigenous AFL legend Nicky Winmar tells his story in a moving and compelling memoir, giving rare insight into his life
#BWF2024Podcast Question 7. Head back to the 2024 Byron Writers Festival with Richard Flanagan in conversation with Jill Eddington. Beginning at a love hotel by Japan’s Inland Sea and ending by a river in Tasmania, Question 7 is about the choices we make about love and the chain reaction that follows. Join Booker Prize-winning author Richard Flanagan to discuss this love song to his island home and to his parents, in a melding of dream, history, place and memory.
#BWF2024Podcast Slick: Australia’s Toxic Relationship with Big Oil. Head back to the 2024 Byron Writers Festival with Royce Kurmelovs in conversation with Isabelle Reinecke. Investigative journalist Royce Kurmelovs’ Slick is a riveting expose of the global oil industry’s multi-decade conspiracy to undermine efforts to address environmental devastation. It tells the stories of fire and flood survivors, and the activists engaged in a fight for the future of Australia.
Stone Yard Devotional. Head back to the 2024 Byron Writers Festival with Charlotte Wood in conversation with Jill Eddington. Join Charlotte Wood to discuss her latest novel Stone Yard Devotional – longlisted for the 2024 Miles Franklin Award – a deeply moving novel about forgiveness, grief, and what it means to be ‘good’, from the award-winning author of The Natural Way of Things and The Weekend.
#BWF2024Podcast Unique. Head back to the 2024 Byron Writers Festival with Jodi Rodgers in conversation with Mandy Nolan. In Unique, beloved star of ABC TV’s award-winning Love on the Spectrum and disability rights advocate Jodi Rodgers shares stories from her three-decade career working with the autistic community and calls for a more inclusive and accepting society.
Head back to the 2024 Byron Writers Festival with William McInnes in conversation with Mareike Hardy. Have you ever behaved like a drongo? Added mayo to a story? Lost your Reg Grundies? Join bestselling author and acclaimed actor William McInnes to discuss Yeah, Nah! – a collection of hilarious memories and moments inspired by Australia’s way with words.
#BWF2024Podcast For The Earth. Head back to the 2024 Byron Writers Festival with Ali Cobby Eckerman, Richard Flanagan, Sue Higginson and David Lindenmayer, chaired by Bob Brown. In this festival highlight, join award-winning poet Ali Cobby Eckermann (She is the Earth), Booker Prize-winning novelist Richard Flanagan (Question 7), ecologist David Lindenmayer (Forest Wars), and local Greens MLC Sue Higginson for a conversation about the environment and the urgent need to care for the natural world
#BWF2024Podcast Media & Justice. Head back to the 2024 Byron Writers Festival with Wayne Bergmann, Amy McQuire, Rob Waters, chaired by Merinda Dutton. The media’s treatment of Indigenous issues, including Black deaths in custody, legacies of the NT intervention, and treaty negotiations, shows we have a long way to go to accessing justice. Join talented writers and experts Wayne Bergmann (Some People Want to Shoot Me), Amy McQuire (Black Witness) and Rob Waters (2023 Australian Poetry Slam Champion) to explore how we can hold power to account and make the world a more equitable place.
#BWF2024Podcast It's Not Just Cricket. Head back to the 2024 Byron Writers Festival with Gideon Haigh in conversation with Chris Hanley. Join journalist, author and polymath Gideon Haigh for an intimate discussion of his latest works, including the moving memoir My Brother Jaz, true crime investigation The Girl in Cabin 350, and biography The One Indiscretion of His Life. Widely known as Australia’s favourite cricket writer, Haigh is one of our most prolific and insightful writers today.
#BWF2024Podcast Close To The Subject. Head back to the 2024 Byron Writers Festival with Daniel Browning in conversation with Rhianna Patrick. Close to the Subject is the collected works of one of Australia’s most accomplished media personalities. Chronicling his career since 2007, join Daniel Browning to reflect on his stellar career as a journalist, radio broadcaster, critic and interviewer.
#BWF2024Podcast America at War with Itself. Head back to the 2024 Byron Writers Festival with Nick Bryant in conversation with Chris Hanley. The Forever War: America’s Unending Conflict with Itself tells the story of America’s extreme polarisation 250 years in the making. Nick Bryant explains how the hate, divisiveness and paranoia we see today are a core part of America’s story.
#BWF2024Podcast For Life. Head back to the 2024 Byron Writers Festival with Aisla Piper in conversation with Charlotte Wood. When her husband doesn’t answer his phone, Ailsa Piper knows something is wrong. For Life is an unforgettable and moving insight into loss, hope and starting again, aided by the incredible healing power of nature and a community of unexpected angels.
#BWF2024Podcast Black Duck- A Year At Yumburra. Head back to the 2024 Byron Writers Festival with Lyn Harwood and Bruce Pascoe, chaired by Ashley Hay. Following the phenomenon of his bestselling Dark Emu, Bruce Pascoe and his partner Lyn Harwood invite us to imagine a different future for Australia, one where we can honour our relationship with nature and improve agriculture and forestry
#BWF2024Podcast Always Will Be. Head back to the 2024 Byron Writers Festival and join Mykaela Saunders in conversation with Daniel Browning. In her stunningly inventive and thought-provoking collection Always Will Be, Mykaela Saunders poses the question: what might country, community and culture look like in the Tweed if Gooris reasserted their sovereignty?
#BWF2024Podcast Lola In The Mirror. Head back to the 2024 Byron Writers Festival with Trent Dalton in conversation with Julia Baird. Bighearted, gritty, magical and moving, Lola in the Mirror is the irresistible new novel from international bestselling author of Boy Swallows Universe and All Our Shimmering Skies, Trent Dalton. Join this festival favourite in conversation with Julia Baird.
#BWF2024Podcast 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem. Head back to the 2024 Byron Writers Festival with Nam Le in conversation with Caoilinn Hughes. Fifteen years after his best-selling, award-winning collection of stories The Boat, Nam Le returns to his great themes of identity and representation in a virtuosic debut book of poetry. 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem is scathing, hilarious, and desperately moving.